These photo-images and text document the making of a Locative Media Art votive deposit by Andrew Gryf Paterson on the 27th May and return visit on 2nd October 2016, at site of the former building of K@2 Centre for Culture and Information, Liepājas-Karosta, Liepāja, Latvia.

This archive entry and story is dedicated to the residents of Karosta, in respect of their creativity and resilience. It is made also in memory also of all those who organised and participated in the first International Locative Media Workshop that took place in July 2003, organised by RIXC Centre for New Media Culture, Riga: locative.x-i.net

The location of Karosta is bound here in documented physical space-time and digital archive with the communications of William Gibson, the internationally-renowned author who is famous for his promotion of cyberpunk, virtual reality environments, and big data-mining in the 80s, 90s and 00s. Via fellow North-American based author and science-technology blogger Bruce Sterling, Gibson learned about the Locative Media Workshop and made a blog post about it, coining the related phrase, "Forget it, man, she's *Karostan*. Latvian 'alien' passport. It's not going to happen". In Summer 2007, Paterson attended a book signing event in Chicago for Gibson's then new novel 'Spook County', which was his first which was inspired by Locative (Mobile) Media practices that connected art and memory to GPS-specified locations. The inscribed dedication in the book folded back, arguably, one of the original inspirations of the novel into the physical 'media' narrative.

A text was written in Spring 2016, titled "She's Karostan.." recalling the connections across space-time, and virtually/remotely between Paterson and Gibson, even though they were previous not actually in contact other than the occasion of the book signing in 2007.

The text was translated to Latvian by K@2 co-founder Kristīne Briede, and to Russian by poet-editor Sergejs Timofejevs. Paterson is most grateful for their patience and skill, both of whom are essentially attached to the author's memories of K@2 Centre of Culture and Information (2000-2008) as a radical creative community located at one of Eastern Europe's most inspiring and complex locations.

(12.10.2016)

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Text related to images:

The postcard addressed to William Gibson contains the words he himself wrote in relation to the aforementioned workshop on his blog in August 2003. 'Spook Country' (2007) was the first of his novels which took inspiration from locative media art, the 'placing' of mobile digital memories attached to location-specificity. 

The coloured woollen-balls were hand-rolled by the author onsite, and refer to RGB, and the white ones, the opposite result of the combined RGB colour-values is also a symbol of peace or surrender in war-time. Karosta means in Latvian, 'war port', and was originally build for the Imperial Russian Baltic Fleet. Although occupied and used by several national militaries and supra-nations over history, it has never seen or hosted actual full warfare on site. 

The alcohol shots toasted both Mr Gibson and K@2 for inspiration, as well as serving as a useful distraction. The 'Malevich' and 'The Artist as Researcher' books maybe be seen as reference and explanations of some sort for the action if anyone asked. No-one did, although the resident of the building did ask, and in addition a driver in a white car drove right up off-road to check what was happening, but didn't get out and just drove on. The picnic was abandoned sooner than expected due to the local caretaker of the building becoming more curious.

Paterson returned on the 2nd October 2016 to complete the votive ritual only to find the former K@2 building fenced off and the votive deposit site out of reach. Trust that it is still there, but note that Locative Media is mostly privatized. It is hence necessary to burn your illusions, offer a gift instead to the meta-data gods, and hope everything is going to be alright. After all, she's Karostan..

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Involvements of author:

Andrew Gryf Paterson (SCO/FI/LV) was a participant in the first international Locative Media Workshop that took place in Liepājas-Karosta, July 16-26th, 2003, as well as an organisational-conversant before and after the event. The workshop was initiated by RIXC Centre for New Media Culture, in collaboration with K@2 Culture and Information Centre (2000-2008) and freelance curator Marc Tuters (then based in Montreal, last known to be in Amsterdam). During the workshop Paterson worked together with programmer Jo Walsh to create a proto-type 'Locative Packet' of media+meta-data. Together with local-resident Vladimir Gekoff (then aged 17 years) and fellow-workshop participant Pete Gomes, we explored what may be said to be early mobile-camera 'Snapchat' over bluetooth network range. In collaboration with then RIXC cultural producer, Signe Pucena, they made an early Locative Media narrative, under the heading Mapping and Sewing Together Mythologies', that was eventually exhibited back in Karosta, in September 2004 at K.Māksla? Gallery, as part of the EU Culture 2000 funded 'Trans-Cultural Mapping' programme coordinated by RIXC.

Paterson was one of the workshop participants who returned to Karosta most regularly in the years that followed when K@2 was still active, including September 2003, April-May 2004, Christmas-New Year 2005, as well as visits each June 2005-2008. Later, in the period after, he has visited more than 10 times, including on the 5th November 2015, when he led the first Locative Media Workshop guided-tour around 'memory-sites' of that first workshop in July 2003. Participants were a small group of 5 international media art lecturers students for the occasion of iWeek, Art Research Lab at Liepaja University's international study week. He hopes it is not the last time.

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